North Sea Port: home to the world's tallest and most modern sea salt production tower

With the construction of a new sea salt production tower, which will immediately become the most modern and highest in the world, food company Zoutman wants to increase the production of sea salt in North Sea Port by 150,000 tonnes. The Belgian company invested 30 million euro to make the production increase possible.

In the 64.5-metre-high structure, salt grains will roll off the conveyor belt without additives, a product in high demand but difficult to produce.

"This new tower is the result of years of research and development," says Zoutman co-CEO Bert Lamote. "Today we can state that we can produce and supply sea salt without additives on an international scale."

Although the new tower recovers waste heat and uses rainwater in the production process, some 300,000 tonnes of salt must be brought in by large vessels from distant regions such as Australia and the Caribbean islands, which has implications for the climate. Zoutman argues that the salt has to make a journey anyway to be sprinkled on western food.

"When extracting salt from the sea, CO2 emissions are 31 times lower than salt from mines," says Lamote. "Moreover, producing sea salt does not damage the soil, which is the case with underground salt mining."

As food is a business activity that North Sea Port counts among its seven core sectors, the port management welcomes the investment and expansion of the activity. The choice of the tall construction is also a hit.

"It means additional employment on the same surface area and a very sustainable occupation of the site," says North Sea Port CEO Daan Schalck. "By going so high, there was no need to provide additional land."

Forty people can work on the new salt tower, which will be commissioned in mid-2023.